So recently had the ability to work from home a bit more than usual so I’m in the market for a KVM or USB switch to go between my PC and work laptop. Anyone have suggestions?

ETA. Thanks for all of the useful feedback, appreciate it!

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6 points

What’s your budget and feature requirements? You can get a cheap USB switch for like $12, or a 4k multi-display KVM for like $2000.

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5 points

Sure. Sub $200 is what I’m looking at. Something that can handle multiple 1440p ultrawides with good USB 3.0 support.

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9 points
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As someone that works in AV for exactly your type of scenario… you unfortunately won’t find anything that supports >1080p60 for under $500. That type of video bandwidth is at a premium for switching on KVMs, matrixes, eg. Good USB 3 support is unfortunately expensive, too.

Expect lots of noticeable lag, too. Switches aren’t engineered for gaming yet.

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4 points
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That’s a shame. I was thinking that I could get along with just a USB switch for the mouse and keyboard and manually switching displays when needed as the bare minimum. I can’t imagine a simple USB switch would have that much delay in response time for peripherals but who knows.

Either way thanks for the great input.

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5 points

multiple 1440p ultrawides

Yeah that won’t be cheap. https://www.store.level1techs.com/products/p/14-kvm-switch-dual-monitor-2computer-z5erd-n6mbj

Might I suggest a USB switcher, a hub, and just changing inputs on the monitor?

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2 points

Yeah, as I keep looking that’s what it seems like it’s the best choice to continue to game and be productive, which is fine by me, not that hard to switch inputs on a monitor.

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3 points

You’re not gonna get that for under $200.

https://www.kvm-switches-online.com/cs1942dp.html

If you can verify you can use MST or displayport passthrough, you can get one for a bit over $200: https://www.kvm-switches-online.com/cs1922.html

I would verify your video and USB bandwidth requirements will work with those before purchasing. You may need to go up a model level if you’re going to be pushing a lot of data.

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